Letter by Ferruh Demirmen adressed to President Biden and Vice Presidenmt Harris

 

Letter to White House 

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,

 Firstly, I take this opportunity to personally congratulate you on your election as the President and Vice President on November 3, 2020.

 I decided to write you this letter to bring to your attention certain facts on the so-called “Armenian genocide” that you may be tempted to recognize on April 24. 

Thanks to an aggressive, all-out campaign by the Armenian lobby and its supporters, in particular those in California, you have been receiving many letters and appeals recently to do just that. These letters include those you received in the past 2-3 months from 38 senators and more than 100 Congresspersons – the politicians that are essentially in the pockets of the Armenian lobby - and are influenced by a deep-seated anti-Turkish, anti-Muslim prejudice. 

So, you are under great pressure. Among the die-hard supporters of the Armenian lobby, nobody matches the enthusiasm of Turkhater Senator Robert Menendez, whose photo-ops with the lobby representatives grace the Internet, and whose recent marriage to a lady of Armenian descent marks a blissful occasion. 

But Congressman Adam Schiff of California is a close match – and what I find most regretful is that he is a Stanford graduate, my alma mater! In any case, before you act, please consider the facts in the “FACT” document below. In so doing, I implore you to set aside the currently strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey, and weigh only facts for the sake of truth and justice. 

In essence, the recognition of “Armenian genocide” by you would be big mistake, and would not only unjustly vilify Turks, it would insult history and international law. 

Politics – which are transitory - should be set aside when the issue under consideration is a hefty and ponderous one, in this case the alleged “Armenian genocide” that refers to events that took place more than a century ago, at a time and place the U.S. politicians know little about. The scholars who support the “genocide” narrative refuse to engage in debates with their counterparts on the other side. And the Armenian side, instead of adjudicating its “genocide” claim in a court of law, resorts to day-in, day-out propaganda. 

Lastly, please be informed that, when the British searched in 1921 the U.S. State Department files in Washington D.C. for evidence to prosecute the 144 high Ottoman government officials held captive on the Island of Malta on charges of atrocities against the Armenians (the Malta Tribunal), the State Department officials warned them not to use the information supplied to them in a court of law.

 The documents in the files included diplomatic dispatches sent from Constantinople by Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr., and the State Department officials knew the dispatches had little probative value in a court of law. The ambassador’s dispatches, in support of the British war propaganda, had little credibility. 2 

Most respectfully, Ferruh Demirmen, Ph.D., Stanford Univ.